The present invention relates to monuments, including those used by surveyors, and to monuments or reference points that can be used in connection with, but not limited to, electronic positioning systems, such as Total Station Survey Systems, Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and Geographical Information Systems (GIS). The invention also relates generally to any form of geographical information system.
There are several different types of surveys. For example, geodetic surveys cover a large geographic area and attempt to define the exact three-dimensional coordinates (northing, easting and elevation) of points on the earth""s surface. Cadastral surveys are typically boundary surveys to define legal or political boundaries on plans.
Another type of survey is associated with a GIS (xe2x80x9cGeographical Information Systemxe2x80x9d), which ties assets to spatial data, and these are best derived from a universally acceptable coordinate system such as the GPS. GIS is a type of geographical information system and GIS is the industry acronym for a technology that integrates database information to coordinated maps. A GIS survey is the acquisition of data, which is linked (surveyed to a location) to a (specific) physical location on a map. A GIS creates xe2x80x9cintelligentxe2x80x9d supermaps for sophisticated planning and analysis. GPS surveys make this survey more economically viable but offer no quality assurance without being integrated or tied into physical monuments the location of which are known.
It is becoming increasingly desirable and attainable to integrate different types of surveys to a country state or provincial grid, or GPS to provide a unified co-ordinate system. However, the monuments used for geodetic and other types of surveys are expensive to place, difficult to maintain and not easily used for many practical survey applications.
Topographical and construction surveys are often tied to independently-adjusted networks of control points, and often to survey monuments used for either cadastral surveys or geodetic networks set by the state or province. In the case of geodetic monuments, they are often buried on right-of-way""s to place them in inter-visible locations (so they can be viewed from one to the other). This makes them difficult and expensive to install and/or use.
Surveyors when carrying out a survey will typically mark certain physical locations for the survey, such as the corners of property, by these visible monuments. These monuments are typically secured to the ground or applied to an object, and which then mark a position on the surface of the earth. Early types of monuments were placed on natural objects such as trees, boulders or the like. However, as the need grew for more monuments, which would be more durable, more permanent types of monuments were developed. For example, it is known to provide a monument formed with a metal stake.
The stake can then be driven into a suitable substrate such as for example, a rock, or can be set in concrete in the ground. Survey indicia on a top plate or disc on top of the stake provide a reference as to the location of that monument.
The more monuments there are the easier it becomes to establish or re-establish coordinated points in a survey grid or network. It will be appreciated, however, that these types of monuments can be time consuming and costly to manufacture and locate, particularly when several are needed to be located within a given area. For example, monuments are required to be properly located when a new housing subdivision is being formed. These markers are needed so that property lines can be determined. However, it is sometimes difficult to insert or affix these known monuments in places where they are needed. During retracement surveys of a property, only the minimum number of monuments are typically replaced. The vast majority are removed during construction and this can result in disputes over property lines and involve having to perform retracement surveys.
Monuments, including those in towns or cities, are often set or positioned flush or nearly flush with the surrounding ground. Particularly in cold climates where there is a lot of snow and ice on the ground, this may make the locating of a monument by a surveyor particularly difficult, requiring digging through snow and ice to try to find the monument.
To assist in the location of survey monuments, it is known to include a magnet as part of the device. The magnet then may be detected, at least under some conditions, with the use of known types of magnetic detection instruments.
Being positioned flush or almost flush to the ground poses other problems, including the greater risk of being dislodged, displaced or vandalised.
Monuments can also be used in connection with electronic location systems such as the satellite based global positioning systems (GPS systems). Mobile location (e.g. GPS) devices used by individuals, either in their cars or elsewhere are becoming more common. Many of these devices are small hand held devices, which can be easily transported around by an individual. From time to time, to be able to verify that the device, such as a mobile GPS device, is providing accurate readings reference can be made to an existing survey monument. However, it is relatively difficult for the general public to know where to look for such a monument, when they decide they need to calibrate or localize their GPS device or other electronic location device to obtain a quality assurance reading.
Also, GPS is often more meaningful when tied to a local datum (i.e. the co-ordinates to which the region has been typically or traditionally utilizing). Quality assurance of GPS is provided by checking known points to verify a plurality of GPS indicated positions. To do datum transformations, known points must be utilized. Known points are the quickest way to initialize the GPS system and a minimum of four (with a known northing, easting and elevation), 3 dimensional points evenly distributed to the extent of a particular survey is recommended to calibrate or localize a GPS device (convert GPS measured coordinates into local grid co-ordinates) This initialization of a GPS device is a mathematical transformation of the global coordinates by a localization routine to the desired local coordinates. If a GPS device is activated over a monument with known coordinates it initializes much quicker and simultaneously provides the user with verification that it is functioning correctly. The user will feed in the known co-ordinates into the mobile device and then the device will run the localization routine and the device will then be initialized and ready for operation. With the use of,GPS devices expanding among members of the general public, most having no survey experience, there is a need to provide an easily accessible and recognizable monument that such individuals can use to assist them in initializing their mobile location or position devices.
In accordance with one aspect of the invention there is provided a water hydrant comprising: a vertically upstanding barrel section adapted for fluid communication with a water source; at least one water outlet adapted for fluid communication with the barrel section; and a survey element positioned on the water hydrant.
According to another aspect of the invention there is provided a hydrant comprising a vertically upstanding pipe section having an inlet and at least one outlet. The inlet and outlet are interconnected by an interior conduit. The inlet is adapted to be connected to a water source for fluid communication with the water source. The hydrant also comprises a survey reference element positioned on the hydrant.
According to another aspect of the invention there is provided a hydrant comprising a vertically upstanding pipe section having an inlet and at least one outlet. The inlet and outlet are interconnected by an interior conduit. The inlet is adapted to be connected to a water source for fluid communication with the water source. The hydrant also comprises a location indicator positioned on said water hydrant.
According to yet another aspect of the invention there is provided a water hydrant comprising a vertically upstanding barrel section adapted for fluid communication with a water source. The hydrant also comprises at least one water outlet adapted for fluid communication with the barrel section and a location indicator positioned on the water hydrant.
According to one aspect of the invention there is provided a method of surveying including the step of sighting with a survey instrument onto a hydrant. Preferably the sighting is onto a reference point on a hydrant, and more preferably, the reference point has survey indicia positioned on the hydrant.
According to another aspect of the invention there is provided a method of surveying including the step of sighting from a water hydrant onto a survey target.
Preferably the sighting is from a reference point onto a hydrant. More preferably the reference point has survey indicia positioned on the hydrant.
According to another aspect of the invention there is provided a network of survey monuments comprising a plurality of survey monuments, two or more of said plurality of survey monuments comprising hydrant monuments each hydrant monument comprising: a vertically upstanding barrel section adapted for fluid communication with a water source; at least one water outlet adapted for fluid communication with said barrel section.
Preferably said two or more hydrant monuments comprise survey indicia positioned on said hydrant monuments.
According to another aspect of the invention there is provided a Geographical Information System having a plurality of control points, at least one of said control points comprising a hydrant monument having a vertically upstanding barrel section adapted for fluid communication with a water source; at least one water outlet adapted for fluid communication with said barrel section. Preferably the hydrant has survey indicia positioned thereon.
According to another aspect of the invention there is provided a method of using hydrant to reference the location of a mobile location device, said method including the steps of:
(a) placing said mobile location device proximate a hydrant monument; said hydrant monument having a vertically upstanding barrel section adapted for fluid communication with a water source; at least one water outlet adapted for fluid communication with said barrel section; and
(b) entering known co-ordinates associated with the location of the hydrant monument into the mobile location device;
(c) after steps (a) and (b), running a reference routine built into said mobile location device.
Preferably said reference routine is one of a localization routine, a calibration routine and initialization routine.
According to another aspect of the invention there is provided a water hydrant comprising:
(a) a vertically upstanding barrel section adapted for fluid communication with a water source;
(b) at least one water outlet adapted for fluid communication with said barrel section; and
(c) a survey reference point on said water hydrant.
According to another aspect of the invention there is provided a network of survey monuments comprising a plurality of survey monuments, two or more of said plurality of survey comprising hydrant monuments each comprising: a vertically upstanding barrel section adapted for fluid communication with a water source; at least one water outlet adapted for fluid communication with said barrel section. Preferably each said hydrant has a survey reference point thereon.
According to another aspect of the invention there is provided a method of gathering geographical information for a geographical information system with the use of a positioning device, using a hydrant as a reference location for said system, said method including the steps of:
(a) placing said positioning device proximate a hydrant monument;
(b) entering the known position of hydrant monument into the positioning device.
According to another aspect of the invention there is provided a geographical information system comprising at least one hydrant used as a reference point.
According to another aspect of the invention there is provided a computer program adapted for generating a visual representation of a section of terrain in the real world, said representation including indicators for a series of computer generated fire hydrants corresponding to fire hydrants in said section of terrain, said fire hydrants in said section of terrain having known co-ordinates for inputting into said computer program as location control points for said computer generated representation, whereby when said known coordinates corresponding to said series of fire hydrants in said section of terrain are inputted to said computer program as location control points for said computer program will generate a representation having all features-shown in the representation in their true relative positions.
According to another aspect of the invention there is provided a computer program for generating a map or model having a plurality of location control points corresponding to fire hydrants in the real world, each of said fire hydrants having co-ordinates in the real world stored in said computer program.